Baby bettas. Looks like all females again. Cellophane blue CT. DSLR

[knifegill]

Note to self - don't take photos immediately after a water change when there's still dust flying everywhere...

This is the one I think might be an albino...maybe.

 

[kove32]

How old are those particular fish? I have bred betta a few times, but never had success raising them.

Awesome job!

 

[knifegill]

They hatched while I was away for Thankgiving. So late November, which means they are about six weeks old. Their favorite foods have always been daphnia and the worms that grow in the hair algae. They all took to dry foods in their first week as well.

 

[GOAT13]

Thats Awesome! How many are there?

 

[knifegill]

There were about forty but I permit cannibalism, so it's down to about nine.

 

[GOAT13]

haha well are you going to try to keep the nine or is it still survival of the fittest?

 

[knifegill]

Thinking the two tiniest might get nommed on. I only need one beautiful female to cross back to dad so I can have some doubletails. Then again, I might just give them away to my LFS to make room for breeding giants. But that's only if I can find a female. I have an amazing sky blue roundtail giant male but need a giant female. Or, then again, I might try crossing my giant with a large female from this batch right here and cross back to make more giants...so many choices!!!

 

[Titania]

Nice job raising them. In my experience raising bettas, the females grow more quickly. So if you're letting nature take it's course, you're most likely missing out on some nice males. If you have the patience, the most stunning males are often times the slower maturers.

 

[Titania]

Oh, and as for the quality of the little girls. I'm liking the little girl who is just turning in the 3rd photo. Her dorsal looks like it might be extended (indicative of carrying DT genes). The big girl in pic 5 looks like she has the nicest caudal with nice straight rays. I'm not loving any of the others, finnage-wise, although 2 looks like she might have nice coloring. But, ignore all of that if you're not planning on breeding for finnage.

If you're looking to breed DTs, you need to be very mindful of the spinal deformities that accompany this trait and be willing to cull liberally. You can't be lazy and let nature take its course if you really want to raise DTs.

 

[knifegill]

Thanks for the advice, Titania. I had not realized that females did grow faster.

Yes, these carry the DT gene. But now that I have my giant male it's going to be hard not to abandon this lineage. If anything, I'll use one of these females to cross into my new giant's genepool. He's a great specimen aside from having a decent hump-back from, I suspect, inbreeding. So I'll probably cross him to one of these and then cross back with the largest at eight months of age to start producing some passable giants/semi-giants.